Experiences of a late-comer to the agility competition scene -- our training, trials, life-style changes/challenges, RV adventures, and observations on the sport, the people, and dogs involved in it. Begun July 17, 2010.

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Sunday, December 12, 2010

Whoa, I haven't blogged in 4 days! Time flies! Moods change! I've been busy delivering poinsetta plants and hand written cards to my dear friends who make it possible for me to leave my pets behind while Maxie and I go to trials. Without Audrey, Laura, Thom and Judy, and Schuyler to take turns visiting my house twice a day to feed FoohFooh and cats, I couldn't go anywhere. Can't forget about them at Christmas! Also one for Nedra, our new Agility Director, who has been a wonderful supporter, mentor and teacher this last year. This activity has finally put me in the Christmas spirit. I'm even partially decorating the house. It's going down to 29 degrees tonight and very windy, so I even laid in a fire for later tonight.

Yesterday I spent several hours at Joy's house, walking her 6 dogs one at a time while she recovers from her broken femur. She gave me this Christmas Card showing all 6 of them, taken just before her accident.

Notice the dingo on the far right! Joy is the only other person I know who owns a dingo, and before I even met Joy, I saw her running Shadow at a USDAA trial in Baton Rouge. I can remember being almost beside myself at the sight, pinching myself in disbelief, almost peeing in my pants! Well, maybe I exaggerate, but not by much. Now, 3 years later, Shadow is 11 and too old to compete, but he looked very distinguished out there in the ring. (Dingos aren't recognized by the AKC as a breed, but they are by the United Kennel Club and other clubs, known as the American Dingo or the Carolina Dog). The UKC has classified them as a pariah dog, which includes other primitive breeds such as the Basenji of Africa and the Thai Ridgeback. They require strong alpha handling, but otherwise make fantastic loyal pets.

Shadow at Agility Class, 2005?

I tell everyone this is FoohFooh's photo (Joy submited it to me for use on the LCCOC website), but it is really Shadow. Their shape is identical! I told my story at the beginning of this blog of how it was my failing FoohFooh by not ever formally training him that made me promise not to fail Maxie and Lucky in that regard, and why I call my blog "foohmaxagility". My dog training journey truly began with FoohFooh. They say inspiration is 9/10th of every success story, and FoohFooh was my inspiration. Maxie is the success story.

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Puddin'Head Wilson,
photo by me.

﻿ I walked Joy's dogs one at a time, to get them familiar with my company, and realized most of them are laid back and not in desparate need of walking. But her 70 lb. boxer, Puddin', (3rd dog in from the right) a 2 year old boxer, is a healthy young athelete with boundless energy, plenty of smarts, and a great desire to please. This dog should have daily strenuous physical exercise and mental challenges. It's pretty obvious Joy is in no position to provide either right now. I'm not yet sure how much I can realistically help with that, but I'm thinking on it. Joy has a treadmill in her living room, but neither of us yet know how to train a dog to walk on one.
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The picot stitch around the edges is a nice touch.

﻿Joy and I ate some of my Tortilla Soup, then sat down for a crochet lesson, making SCRUBBIES. We were going to do this before, but now that Joy is chair bound and needs something constructive to do, it's finally crochet time. We listened to Christmas music, broke out the rum, forced our fingers to re-learn the chaining, single and double crochet stitches most young ladies were taught in our day, plus a pretty picot stitch we put at the outer edges, and each of us actually turned out a scrubbie by the end of 2 hours.

All the while, we chatted away and discovered lots of things about each other that we've never had time to share in class or at dog events. It was an altogether pleasant experience, as I suppose ladies' sewing circles have been for centuries. It really made me appreciate my intact bones, and female companionship for a change.

Scrubbies I made last year. If you don't get the
tension right or count the stitches correctly,
they get wavy.

NOTE: Scrubbies are invaluable. They scrub everything without scratching anything -- cars, pot and pans, countertops, toilets. My Mom makes dozens of these each year for friends and family. We're all afraid if she ever quits (she's 90), we'll be in scrubbie poverty (they wear out after awhile), so a few gals in the family have begged her for the pattern and endeavored to teach ourselves how. Mom has been doing them so long, hers lay perfectly flat, look great, and she can do one in about an hour. It takes awhile to get the tension just right so they don't come out wavy, but even the wavy ones scrub good. Here are a few I made last year. Anybody who wants the instruction sheet, ask and I'll email it to you.

What have scrubbies got to do with dogs? Absolutely nothing, except they love to tear them up, which is probably good for cleaning their teeth!